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We use slight variations of these instead - "Hold me here while I set up the anchors","I am in direct to the anchors, give me some slack but keep me on belay","I am in direct to the anchors, take me off belay, I am going to rap",Before removing oneself from the anchor, "Am I on belay?"

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"You have to decide to do a flag, where you can broke your vertebrae or a barn door depending of your pro" - the poster formerly known as Champ

DLottmann

We use slight variations of these instead - "Hold me here while I set up the anchors","I am in direct to the anchors, give me some slack but keep me on belay","I am in direct to the anchors, take me off belay, I am going to rap",Before removing oneself from the anchor, "Am I on belay?"

Way too much on a crowded, noisy, or windy day IMO. Work out the plan before leaving the ground. If the plan changes the only things you should try to communicate are:

"Off Belay" or "Take" "Lower"...

The more words you use the less likely the intention will correctly reach the belayer.

When I'm about to be lowered I always grab the other side of the rope (the side coming up from the belayer to the anchor) and hold myself until I feel tension from the belayer. you can easily hold yourself with both hands. you should always communicate plans before leaving the ground, however things don't always go as expected at the anchors. there's often some kind of shouting back and forth, and hence some possibility for miscommunication, so taking additional precautions is necessary.

the man who wrote the book on rock climbing safety just had an accident. hopefully it serves as a reminder to all of us that it can happen to anyone. none of us is immune from mistakes.

DLottmann

When I'm about to be lowered I always grab the other side of the rope (the side coming up from the belayer to the anchor) and hold myself until I feel tension from the belayer...

I do this too, as 90% of the time it is a first time client lowering me... I saw a fellow guide this summer use a shunt tethered to his harness while being lowered at the North End... I wouldn’t use it every time but I thought it was a good idea for those often lowered by new climbers... In this particular case I think it was crucial as the teenager lowering him had no idea how to properly lower... the father stood by out of the system and I actually moved over to provide a backup belay as the kid kept letting go of his brake hand... having the dad maintain a backup behind the kid would have been prudent... once I saw the Shunt I returned to my rope...

Basic is the way to go when it comes to communication. I’m not “off” until I yell “off”... there are not many things that sound like “off” even in difficult conditions.

As an aside, a long time ago Travis and I climbed a few popular routes on Cathedral using no commands except for “Yo!”. Based on context we always knew what was happening over the course of 10+ pitches... it was kind of mocking the amount of un-necessary communication we had been observing as of late...

Yo = on belayYo = I’ve built the anchor and am attached, and you are on belayYo = climbing

Same thing happened to Brady Libby on the second pitch of Rock du Jour at Rumney. His belayer took him off belay from miscommunication (struggling to do so since the rope was loaded ) and he went whipping, only to be saved by a kink in the rope that caught in a draw. It must have been exciting asking the belayer to put him back on belay without pulling on the rope and loosening the kink holding him

« Last Edit: December 12, 2012, 05:36:36 PM by M_Sprague »

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is not a path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. – John Kenneth Galbrait

When sport lowering you should NEVER say off belay or In Direct. Even the In Direct command gives your belayer an excuse to slack off and start hitting up the cute girl/guy on the next climb. In Direct is information they do NOT need to know! The ONLY commands that you should use are SLACK then TAKE then I AM ON YOU then LOWER.

As A Belayer you should NEVER, EVER take your leader off belay on a half pitch climb untill you are certain they are really rapping and NOT lowering. If they start pulling up rope simply feed it through the belay device untill they get pissed and yell Off BELAY.